Tag Archives: Mood

A Tourette Syndrome mother’s long journey, part 1

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This is part 1 of a 4-part series from a California mom detailing her struggle to get the right care for her Tourette Syndrome son.

Hello, I  am the mother of a 14-year-old son, Spencer, who has Tourette Syndrome. Unfortunately, we had to take a bumpy road  before this diagnosis. I could write a book on our journey so far, and I still don‘t have it figured out.

It has never been easy, including the beginning that started with the worst case of Hyperemesis, Pitocin, 24 hours of labor and hemorrhaging to get him into the world. Nursing was a challenge, he didn’t sleep much, had some ear infections and was sensitive to loud sounds.

He was otherwise very healthy and always in the 95 percent on the height/weight charts.  He walked at 15 months and was running within the end of that month. He had an advanced vocabulary and figured out how to open up the most advanced cabinet locks by his first birthday.

He had an atypical febrile seizure at 14 months old that was severe enough to have him admitted, but thankfully all the tests came back positive. As a toddler, he was very impulsive when it came to playing with other children and it was not long until we were outcasts in play groups. It is then that I started to feel isolated. Continue reading →

Mother seeking input from other parents for her 12-year-old son

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I have three boys – Billy, 20, Austin, 18 (Asperger’s Syndrome and ADHD), and my Kyle is 12.  Kyle was diagnosed with TS in 2nd grade, and I’m not always sure which is worse – the TS or the OCD.  They also believe Kyle has bi-polar disorder but since he is so young they are, for now, calling it a “mood disorder.” 

Kyle went from this happy child to a sad 12-year-old middle school student.  We see a doctor in New York City monthly and a therapist here weekly. He is on Clonidine and Zoloft. I just took him of Risperidone because I didn’t feel it was doing much for him.

His tics are a lot of head and arm jerking.  He also repeats things over and over, along with high-pitch speech once in awhile.  AND, he whistles the same tune ALL the time. (Can you tell that is my favorite one??)  He is starting to isolate himself and wants to spend more and more time alone, and he’s gaving a lot of difficulties in school, too.

I would love to hear other mom’s or dad’s inputs – to talk to someone else who is going through this would be like therapy for me.  Other people can say they understand, but they cannot unless their child has TS and the other things that go with it.  There are times when I’m not sure I can make it through this, as I’m sure all moms in this situation have felt.  I would love to “vent” and also learn what possibly worked and did not work for them.